


drawn to you

by AllisonDiamond



Category: The Hollow (Cartoon)
Genre: Adam's so dumb in this I swear, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys Being Boys, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Friends to Lovers, Hanahaki Disease, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Slow Burn, You idiot talk about your feelings, and kai's oblivious, btw they're 19-20 in here, well my dose of slow burn, which is either really slow burn or not that slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:48:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24266149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllisonDiamond/pseuds/AllisonDiamond
Summary: One of the very first things Adam remembered after waking up in The Hollow was… well Kai. Just Kai. The red-haired, panicky boy.Kai had been a few inches shorter than him, coming just below his shoulders. There was nothing that special about him, but yet there was something about him, maybe his carefree attitude, that drew Adam to him. And from that moment on, Adam decided that he wanted to know more about the boy who was always smiling no matter how bleak things seemed.
Relationships: Adam/Kai (The Hollow), Kai/Vanessa (The Hollow), temporally - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 55





	drawn to you

One of the very first things Adam remembered after waking up in The Hollow was… well Kai. Just Kai. The red-haired, panicky boy.

Kai had been a few inches shorter than him, coming just below his shoulders. There was nothing that special about him, but yet there was something about him, maybe his carefree attitude, that drew Adam to him. And from that moment on, Adam decided that he wanted to know more about the boy who was always smiling no matter how bleak things seemed.

At first, they didn’t get that well. It wasn’t that surprising; their personalities didn’t mesh that well together. Kai had a child-like quality to him, and Adam, well, he needed to be the mature one, to protect the group from harm’s way, and to lead them home. He supposed that was how his character was supposed to be, or at the least, until he regained his memory.

No matter how many times they had clashed, how many times Kai screwed up their plans, Adam found himself learning more and more toward Kai. It was as if an invisible string was pulling them together.

Or just Adam.

Kai seemed fine. Once Adam asked him, if he felt a pull in his heart, he looked at Adam as if his head was screwed on backwards and laughed. After that, Adam ignored this strange feeling. There was more pressuring issues at hand to deal with anyway.

And Kai found love with Vanessa.

When Adam saw them together, flying together in the night sky, he would be lying if he didn’t feel like a twinge in his heart. A brief flash of hurt, which was weird, because Kai was his friend. He should have been happy for him.

Once more, he buried the feeling, and focused on getting home. His pull toward Kai never fully went away even if he would like to believe otherwise.

* * *

Adam woke up on a Sunday coughing up a storm.

At first he didn’t think anything of it. It might have been the air. So he just ignored it and went about his day. Only it didn’t go away. It got worse, so bad, that Mira dragged him away from the rest of the gang to his house and had a serious talk with him.

In the three years since the game, Mira hadn’t changed much. She did have new hairdo, though. Her hair was now shorter, tucked beneath her ears. The blue streak remained. 

“Adam,” she said in a stern voice, “what’s wrong? You need to get that checked.”

“I’m fine, Mira.” He suppressed a cough but he still felt it wanting to jump out of the back of his throat any minute now. “Really, I am.”

Mira shook her head. “No, you’re not.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I’ll let you off the hook this time, Adam, but promise me, if this doesn’t go away, you’ll get that checked.”

“Okay, I promise, pinky swear.” He held out his pinkie to show her that he was serious. “C’mon, Kira, when am I ever known to lie?”

“I choose not to answer that.” She turned, her hand lingering on the knob for a few seconds too long. “You’re my best friend, Adam, and I’d hate to see you getting hurt, you know. Promise me you wouldn’t be stupid and play the hero. Your health is far more important than your ego.”

“I promise.” He gave her a small smile, which was soon replaced by a long, dry cough. 

“Adam!” Mira was by his side faster than the speed of light. “Are you okay? Do you want me to take you—”

“Mira, I’m handsome as ever,” he said weakly, trying to get that flowery taste out of his mouth. That was odd.

“Adam,” she droned, “now is not the time for joking. You sure you’re fine? Should I get my dads? Since your parents aren’t home.”

“Mira, I’m nineteen. I can take care of myself.” He rolled his eyes. 

“Right, right.” She shook her head. “I can cancel my date with Skeet if you want. I know we haven’t spent much time since Skeet and me happened. And I know, Kai hasn’t really been over here. And,” she went out, “I’m so sorry, Adam. We’ve been terrible friends, abandoning you like that.”

“Mira, calm down. It’s fine,” he reassured her. “I’m fine. Go enjoy your date. I know I’m irresistible but I don’t want to take you away from Skeet.”

She laughed a little. “Yeah, you are. Promise me you’ll call me if anything happens.”

“I will, I will. Now go!” He literally had to push her out of the room.

“Okay, I’m leaving!” She playfully smacked him on the head before she left and closed the door behind her.

Once she left, Adam collapsed on his bed, and started coughing. 

* * *

His coughing had gotten worse.

He had hoped it would have stopped. Except that it didn’t. He had even started coughing up blood. He kept a handkerchief handy, and when his friends were out of sight, he’d cough into it. He didn’t look at the content, just put it away once he was done.

After the sixth week of nonstop coughing, Adam came to a decision. He was dying. There was no other explanation. And wasn’t that something? After everything that he had went through in The Hollow, he was dying from a simple cough? He would laugh if it didn’t hurt so much to do that.

Mira sent him some questioning looks, but he ignored them, and she didn’t bring it up. Not yet, anyway. Sooner or later, she would confront him about that, and when that time comes, Adam decided he would clean to her about it. She was his best friend, and if he was dying, well, she had a right to know.

“Adam, you coming?” Kai’s voice canceled out his thoughts.

“Yes, be there in a sec!” He put the handkerchief in his pockets. He hoped he didn’t look as bad as he felt. 

Taking quick, painful steps, he rushed to join his friends. It was the first time they were all hanging out together before Mira and Skeet coupled up, and Kai with Vanessa. Reeve was the only other single member of the group besides Adam. Kai had once joked that he and Reeve were secretly dating. That was a big no. Reeve and him just didn’t work as a couple. Friends, maybe. Boyfriends, no, they would kill each other before they were even able to finish their first date.

“Dude, you okay?” Kai’s hand was circled around Vanessa’s waist. His eyes were soft and concerned. “You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine, Kai.” Something was stuck in his throat and he badly wanted to cough but he ignored it. “Are you chickening out ‘cause you know I’m gonna finally beat your high score?”

Kai laughed. “You wish. I’m going to wipe the floor with you. Bring it on!”

“You wish.” He huffed. “You only won ‘cause I was being nice. No more Mr. Nice Guy from now on. I’m going to destroy you.”

“Please, nobody can go against the Kaister and come out intact! I’m going to annihilate you!”

“Bring it on!”

From the corner of his eyes, Adam could see Vanessa rolling her eyes. “Are you boys done now? I’m starving.”

“Yeah, Vans.” Kai gave her a quick peck on the lips and that hurt. Why did it hurt? It shouldn’t hurt. Kai was his friend. 

Instead of dealing with those repressed feelings, Adam ignored them, and joined his friends. Mira got behind the wheels and they drove to the Arcades, stopping to pick up Reeve who was running late from his job at the local radio station. He was the DJ there.

* * *

“Sorry I’m late,” Reeve said as he got in. He turned to look at Adam, his headphones hanging low on his neck. “Hey, man. What you been up to?”

“You know, this and that. You’d think with my charming personality and obvious good looks, I’d find a job by now.’

“What good looks?” he joked. “Just hang in there, man. Someone out there will take pity on you and hire you someday. Or you could always work for Kai.”

Kai came up from one of his another makeout sessions with Vanessa. “What?” he asked, lips slightly swollen. 

“Geez, thanks, Reeve. Really appreciate it.”

“You know it.” Reeve winked.

“What?” Kai echoed his question from earlier. He looked between Adam and Reeve.

His hair had grown, reaching just below his pale, freckled neck. And if that sight didn’t do something to Adam. 

“Guys!” he asked again. 

Vanessa groaned behind Kai. “Kai, they were talking Adam getting a job. At your mansion.”

“Oh,” he said, still not catching on. And then it dawned on him. “Oh. Yeah, dude, that’d be frickin’ awesome!’ He laughed.

And if his laugh wasn’t infectious.

And just like that, Adam felt another cough coming. No, no, please not now! Not here, not in front of his friends. He tried to suppress it but it was too late. He took out his handkerchief and started coughing into it.

“Hey, man, you okay?” He could barely hear Reeve’s concerned voice with all the coughing.

“Adam!” Kai’s voice was all high and panicky. “Mira, what’s happening with Adam?”

Mira sighed. “I don’t know,” she answered, deciding to spare Kai the fact that she knew more than what she was telling him. 

Soon his friends’ voices got quieter and quieter till Adam couldn’t hear anything above his fit of coughing. And when he finally looked at his handkerchief, he saw drops of petals in it. Small pink ones.

What? He couldn’t be coughing up flower petals. That only happened when you were dying from a broken or rejected heart.

Adam wasn’t in love with anyone, so the rejected heart didn’t make any sense, nor had he had his heart broken by anyone. This couldn’t be happening to him. It seemed like the world wanted him to die from an incurable, fatal disease that only happened in one out of million people.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I wrote this. I was supposed to spend all my time writing that crack ship of mine, but writing a 100k-200k fic is not that fun esp when you're writing about two idiots from two very different universe. I think I'm in a writing mood so I can finally mark that one fic complete and get back to the other one. I'm bad at this writing business. Btw, I hope you guys are all staying home and sane out there!
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://harry-lloyds.tumblr.com)


End file.
